Not as Big Of a Jerk as You Could Have Been
by xIliveinmyownworldx
Summary: I fixed it :) When Zuko finds Katara alone at the beach they both get captured by General Zhao. AU where everything is the same but Zhao's still alive, season 3 before Zuko joins the gaang , zutara
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone and welcome to my new story :)

As I'm writing all of this on my tablet some of my spelling mistakes may be excused while I'd be thankful for pointing out any major mistakes as English is not my native language and I'd like to improve as well :) reviews are always welcome

Disclamer: avatar and it's characters does not belong to me, I only use them to entertain myself and others by using the rainbow of my imagination to create stories :)

It was late at night but I still couldn't sleep. It was just too hot and I wasn't used to such high temperatures, especially not at night.

After who knows how long I tossed my light blanket aside and got up.

Looking around the camp, I made sure everyone else was still asleep and went of through the woods down to the beach I had noticed earlier.

Cross legged, I was sitting in my ocean blue summer dress in the soft, cold sand close to the water and savored the sound of the light waves splashing against the shore in the peaceful and quiet night.

The full moon shone brightly upon me and I closed my eyes and smiled as I bent the water in front of me into different patterns.

I fairly enjoyed the feeling I had whenever I bent my element. The warm rush of power and the peace only found in a bender's heart. That is, for benders who bend for passion and the love for their element and not just because of the power t could give them, especially over non-benders.

"Look who's there?" I heard a mocking voice behind me that seemed oddly familiar.

"Zuko?" I asked as I turned around. It was him, but the only things that gave his identity away were the scar on his face and his golden eyes.

"Yes of course. Who else would I be?" He was thrown aback for a second but now coming closer to me.

His hair had grown a lot and he, all in all, seemed a little taller and broader since the last time I had seen him. He wore only a light red shirt and pants instead of his usual armour and together with the (thankfully) cut off ponytail he almost looked human.

I left his question unanswered as he encountered me, letting out a fireball of his left palm that enlightened his face in mysterious way and also let his beautiful eyes sparkle.

A smirk settled on my face in a matter of seconds and I bent a stream of water to me, ready to accommodate to whatever he threw upon me.

Whenever Zuko and I fought with each other, it never truly was a fight. It was more of a dance, a beautiful one, because in the end we'd never hit each other with our opposite elements even once. It was like that just wasn't possible.

Every time Zuko threw one of his fire flames at me, I extinguished it immediately.

And whenever I tried a waterbending move on him, he let the water vaporize before it had a chance of hitting him.

But I didn't count on the fact that Zuko could also act with his body. So throughout our "dance" he led me further back into the forest which I didn't notice because I was so involved in our fight, that is, until I noticed the tree against my back.

Zuko extinguished the fire in his hands immediately as to not hurt me. He took both of my wrists and pinned them against the tree as I tried to catch my breath.

"Where's the avatar?" He asked, trying to sound dangerous but failed miserably due to the lack of his own breath.

"Wouldn't it have been easier to catch me while I wasn't aware of your presence?"

Now the teenage boy in front of me smirked in a way I had never seen it before, not as evil as it used to be.

"But where would the fun be in that, little water tribe girl?" He moved a little closer and I could smell his musky, smoky scent.

"Do I have to repeat my question?" He asked again but he didn't sound as evil and inhuman anymore as he used to in our last few encounters.

His face drew closer and his eyes where dead serious. "Where's the avatar?" He said again, leading my head up to meet his eyes with mine as I looked onto the ground.

"That, I'd liken to know as well." I heard a deep, dangerous voice in the darkness of the forest in front of me and Zuko released my wrists immediately and turned around.

"General Zhao." He noticed but did not show any signs of obsequiousy for the General like everyone else from the fire nation would.

"The banished Prince and the water tribe peasant." He smirked evil "what an odd couple." "I'm going to take both of you with me. With the girl I can capture the avatar and I'm going to hand you inn to your father, Prince Zuko."

Zhao came closer and Zuko stepped closer in front of me as though he'd try to protect me.

"Your father will be glad about the opportunity I'm about to give him to ridden himself of you."

He smirked again but he definitely didn't look as handsome as Zuko does when he smirks but more like a grimace.

"Father wouldn't do that !" Zuko exclaimed with a shocked expression on his face.

"Of course he would. You are a disgrace to our whole nation. What do you think azula is after? Your father made the decision that your execution would be much more to his liking."

Zuko seemed devastated and did not pay attention to anything around him anymore.

Then I saw how something glowed up in the general's hand.

"Zuko, it's a trap. Pay attention!" I screamed before pushing him out of the way, so that the fireball wouldn't be able to hit him.

Faster than ever, I called water to me and let the fireball die in midair because this wasn't a game anymore. This wasn't just a "dance" with Zuko anymore. This was truly about life or death now.

"You'll both loose, little princess." He said before General Zhao fired incredibly many fireballs at me and I wasn't possibly able to extinguish every single one of them.

But thankfully, Zuko came to his senses and helped me before he fired some bigger waves of fire in the General's direction himself.

"I don't think so." The black haired teenager said but the problem was now that you couldn't foresee zhao's next move due to the firewall in front of us produced by Zuko.

Zhao's next move was a lightning that hit me hard and I lost my consciousness after hearing Zuko scream "Katara!"

I never knew that he even was aware of my name or that I had one.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for all the nice reviews :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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When I woke up, everything around me was pitch black. My head ached badly as well as my stomach, where the lightning of General Zhao had hit me. I sat up.

"Hello?" I asked quietly into the darkness, hoping to have somebody who could tell me, where I was.

"Katara?" I heard someone asking hurriedly and not a second later, the room I was apparently in, lit up revealing the small cell I seemed to share with a familiar firebender.

I held my head. "What happened? Where are we?"

Zuko crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked at the ground. "After the lighting struck you and you blacked out, I had a hard time defending myself AND you. So you'd better be thankful, peasant."

I didn't say anything. I would have been thankful if he would have talked to me in a nicer way and actually got us out of that. _It's the effort that counts, at least he tried._ A voice echoed in my head.

"Anyway, Zhao's servants showed up and then I was clearly outnumbered. Zhao hit me and dragged me away. And now, here we are in a cell on his ship where he probably actually wanted to store the avatar." The black haired guy concluded.

"Well, thanks for trying." I mumbled but I was honest.

"I don't need your pity, you little water wench!" Zuko exclaimed angrily but I put my hands over his fists.

"I'm not pitying you. Never would, never will. And as long as we're in here together, I'd suggest that we try to get along because we can't escape if we end up killing each other."

Zuko furrowed his eyebrows. "You plan to escape?"

Now I was shocked. "Of course! Did you think you'd just follow along with General Zhao's plan? Did you really want to be handed over to your father and be executed, along with Aang? I either escape or die trying." I looked into Zuko's face and I think I caught a glimpse of a face of Zuko I had never seen before; an awestruck one.

When I pushed his fists down, the pain struck through my stomach again.

"Are you hurt?" Zuko asked sounding bored by the situation but I could see concern in his eyes.

"Yeah, but it's okay. It's going to go away. And once we get out of here, I can heal myself. Are you hurt?"

"Only lightly." He said, "my wrists hurt a d my chest burns but other than that, I guess I'm alright."

I let a breath out I didn't know I was holding. I was used to care about Tue people around me, whether they were friends or not never mattered.

And I had to care about other people a lot with my carefree brother who tended to hurt himself a lot, always exclaiming that he was "just a guy with a boomerang and didn't ask for any of this" and the childish avatar who tended to get hurt lot while playing around or training bending techniques and lastly, our newest addition to the team: Toph.

She wasn't nearly as reckless as the two boys but she still got a lot of bruises and wounds from training.

Also, I was used to care like a mother since my own mother died, killed by the fire nation, and my father was recruited for war leaving my brother and me behind with no idea of whether he was dead or alive. So I had to grow up really fast and didn't only take care of my own brother but also of other children from the tribe who suffered by the same or a similar fate, only smaller than me and Sokka, so they weren't able to take care of themselves, yet.

I felt how my eyes burned and my eyelids were heavy. I didn't know how long I had slept before but I hadn't had restored all my energy, yet.

"Oh, and Zuko? I liked it much better when you actually used my name." I smiled a little before I drifted off to sleep again.

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Thanks for reading :)


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